Call overload of Parse to convert string formatted according to conventions of fr-FR culture
Imports System.Globalization Module MainClass Public Sub Main() Dim dateValue As Date Dim dateString As String = "2/16/2010 12:15:12 PM" Try dateValue = Date.Parse(dateString, New CultureInfo("fr-FR", False)) Console.WriteLine("'{0}' converted to {1}.", dateString, dateValue) Catch e As FormatException Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}'.", dateString) End Try End Sub End Module